Trading Favors
by Kalta79
Summary: Slightly AU story, starting after Sephiroth's attack on Nibelheim
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

 _Reno landed the helicopter in the town square of Nibelheim. As he and Rude got out, they looked at the teams putting the fires out._

 _"Well, it looks like this is going to be one hell of a clean up job. Sephiroth sure was busy." Reno said._

 _"You heard what Tseng said, it's going to be a cover up job." Rude reminded him._

 _Reno shrugged. "Whatever. It's our job, so it's all the same. Let's go see the reactor."_

 _When they got there, they saw Hojo's lackeys taking away Cloud Strife and Zack Fair. When Reno moved out of their way, he saw a cowboy boot sticking out from behind one of the capsules containing test subjects. Checking it out, he saw a dark-haired girl laying in a pool of blood. Thinking she was dead, he went to pull her out to throw her in the cremation pit with the other dead, but he heard her groan as he touched her._

 _Carefully getting her out, he saw the extent of her injuries, and grabbed his pocket knife, cutting her top off in strips for use as makeshift bandages. Then he put his jacket around her to get her body temperature back up. When he carried her out of the reactor, she started mumbling._

 _"I knew you would save me Cloud, I just knew it." the girl said as she tightened her grip around his neck._

 _"There are no clouds, it's sunny out." Reno replied._

 _As soon as Reno got outside, a man ran up to him._

 _"What are you doing with Tifa?" the man demanded to know._

 _"You know her?" Reno asked._

 _"Yes, I'm Zangan, I'm her instructor."_

 _"Then you can take her." Reno handed her to the man, but Tifa resisted at first._

 _"Don't leave me again, Cloud!" Tifa tried to hold onto Reno, but she was too weak, and Zangan took hold of her._

 _Once Reno was unencumbered, he went back to his duties as part of the cleanup squad, putting the girl out of his mind._

* * *

The members of AVALANCHE faced the Turks, weapons drawn and everyone had assumed a battle stance. Tifa stared at the red-headed man, something about him seemed familiar. Cloud and Barret fought the Turks off, for which Tifa was grateful. She had exchanged a few blows with the red-headed man, but for some reason she instinctively held back.

"Are you okay?" Cloud and Barret asked her after the Turks had fled. They had seen that she wasn't fighting at her best.

"I'm not sure. I'm going to find Zangan. I can't be losing my edge now." Tifa explained.

Tifa approached the cabin when she suddenly felt movement behind her. She grabbed the staff that was quickly descending towards her head and wrenched it away from whoever held it. Spinning around, she faced Zangan.

"Your reflexes are still good." he said approvingly.

"But the last fight I was in, I held back. That's unacceptable."

"Tell me about it. The water should be hot enough for tea now." Zangan said as he welcomed her into the cabin.

Once the tea had been served, Tifa started to explain. "I was fighting a red-headed man and for some reason I didn't really want to fight him."

Zangan stared hard at for a moment before walking to a chest and pulled out a package. "The next time you see him, give him this."

"How will giving him something help me fight him?" she asked as he handed her the package.

Zangan shook his head. "You're asking the wrong question."

"What's the right question then?"

"You'll figure it out when the time is right."

* * *

When her team ran into the Turks again, the Turks left them alone, claiming they were on vacation. That night, she took the package and knocked on the red-headed man's door, and when he opened it, he just stared at her, neither friendly or hostile.

"What do you want?" he said.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm supposed to give you this package." Tifa said, holding it out to him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I'm…I'm not sure."

"Then you can open it." He opened the door further and gestured for her to come in. "If it's a bomb, you'll blow us both up."

Tifa realized he was in nothing but his boxers and he was in better shape than she thought. There was nowhere for her to sit besides the bed, so she sat on the edge on it and opened the package. They were both surprised to find it was just a jacket, and it looked to be one of his.

"Why would Zangan have your jacket?" she wondered aloud. Then she examined the jacket more closely. "And why does it have blood on it?"

When she had said Zangan's name, he thought it sounded familiar. Staring at her dark hair, he started to remember. Shrugging, he took his jacket back from her.

"Thanks for giving me a bloody jacket, but I'm expecting company, so would you mind leaving?" he asked her.

With a confused expression on her face, she got up and headed towards the door, then stopped right next to him.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"I'm Reno. You should already know that, or your intel sucks." Reno said, catching a whiff of her perfume. "Hope to see you again when it's sunny out."

As he closed the door, Tifa stood in the hallway momentarily, then shook her said and went back to her room.

Reno heard another knock on his door, and smiled when he opened it, seeing Elena standing there in a long trench coat tied tightly around her.

"Took you long enough." Reno said, pulling her inside and kicking the door closed.

Elena smiled and kissed him as he untied her trench coat, revealing her naked body underneath.

***

Tifa lay in bed, more confused than ever. Why didn't she feel like hurting Reno? He had seemed almost like a jerk in his room, until his parting comment about seeing her again when it's sunny out. That sounded familiar. And why would Zangan think a bloody jacket would solve the mystery? Tifa ended up falling into a troubled sleep.

Sunny out, it's sunny out. Sephiroth chanted at Tifa. There are no clouds, it's sunny out. he said as he gleefully ran his sword through Cloud, then attacked her. Then she felt herself drowning in blood, and a jacket appeared and when it wrapped around her, the blood disappeared, and she felt herself moving through the air until Zangan appeared and took hold of her.

Tifa woke up to find herself sweating as she relived the murderous attack on her and Cloud. Then she remembered the jacket…Reno was there? He brought her to Zangan? She hurried to Reno's room and knocked loudly. She had to knock and wait quite a while before he opened the door, and Tifa realized he was naked.

"What do you want now?" he asked when he recognized her.

Tifa walked in and turned to face him. "You were there in Nibelheim, weren't you? You took me to Zangan!"

"If you say so." Reno replied.

"I do say so. Why'd you do it?" she asked.

Suddenly there was movement in the bed and Tifa saw a blonde staring at them both.

"Reeeeeeeenoooooo…" the blonde called to him.

"We'll talk later." Reno told Tifa and manhandled her out the door, slamming it shut.

"Who was that girl and what did she mean about Nibelheim?" Elena asked Reno as he rejoined her in bed.

"Nothing important." Reno said before thoroughly distracting her.

***

Tifa stood out in the hallway again, wondering what to do. If he helped save her life, what kind of person would that make her if she continued fighting him? She owed him something.

***


	3. Chapter 3

Tifa carefully made her way through the post-Meteorfall Midgar. It had only been a day since it was destroyed, but she wanted to hurry up and see if 7th Heaven was still standing. She hoped she was going the right way, with all the rubble the city was so disfigured that it was hard to tell. Suddenly she heard a groan and warily approached the sound. It came from the remains of a building. She made her way to the sound, hoping she wasn't stepping on any bodies trapped in the rubble. She saw part of a body, the person's head and legs covered by debris, and their visible midsection covered by dust and ashes. The arm was trying to move. Taking the piece of roofing material off their head, she was stunned to see that it was Reno, with a nasty gash on his head.

Reno opened his eyes when he felt himself being uncovered, and managed to focus them on Tifa. "Oh, it's you." he said before passing out again.

Tifa tried to remove the debris over his legs, but it was wedged in by pieces of concrete and cement that were too heavy for her to move. But then she noticed that his legs were actually free, because the debris had been wedged, it couldn't collapse onto his legs, it was just above him. She pulled him out and with no other way to get him to safety, she put his arms around her neck and half-piggybacked him, looking for shelter. Tifa was surprised when she found herself in front of Aerith's church, which was miraculously untouched by Meteorfall.

As she dragged Reno inside, she suddenly realized she was at the end of her strength. She laid Reno down on the floor, then passed out herself. When she woke up, Reno was trying to stand up, but he was having trouble even getting to a kneeling position.

"You need to rest more." Tifa said, coming up behind him and gently touching his arm.

He tried to turn around, but was off balance and he knocked them both to the ground. "Would you feel that finally made us even?" he asked as he lay on top of her, referring to her past attempts to try and do something nice for him.

"If it will keep you from being a stubborn ass and trying to hurt yourself more, then yes." Tifa replied, gently pushing him off her.

Only finding a bottle of water and some paper towels when she searched the church for supplies, she cleaned off Reno's wounds the best she could. She was glad most of them seemed to be superficial, except possibly the gash on his head.

"I'll go try and find you some help, I'll be back soon." Tifa said, then left.

She had no luck finding help, emergency personnel were waiting to make sure there was no radiation from Meteorfall before coming back to Midgar. However, there were plenty of looters willing to risk it. Tifa tangled with a group of them with knives who didn't appreciate her 'invading their territory' when she gathered some medical supplies from the remains of a hospital, and more food and water from an abandoned grocery store. They were just opportunists though, with no real training, and she easily sent them running. Back at the church, she made Reno eat and drink a little while she bandaged him up.

"What happened to your arm?" he asked as he chewed on his sandwich.

Tifa looked and saw the bleeding cut. "Oh, I guess one of them did manage to get a lucky strike in."

"Who's them?"

"Looters." Tifa answered as she finished bandaging him up, and then took care of her arm.

As the day wore on, Tifa started feeling funny. She tried to ignore it, but it kept getting worse. After dinner when she was checking to see if she needed to change Reno's bandage, her vision suddenly went blurry. She started blinking her eyes, trying to focus them.

"Are you okay?" Reno asked, noticing she was having trouble.

She stared at him, trying to figure out what he was saying. "I'm fine." Tifa eventually said, but when she went to stand up, she collapsed, and Reno barely caught her before she hit the floor.

He felt her forehead and she was burning up. Removing the bandage on her arm, Reno saw that the cut was horribly inflamed. "Dammit!" he swore.


	4. Chapter 4

Tifa's memory of the next couple days was fuzzy. She constantly saw Reno's face hovering over her. When she felt him touching her arm and the pain that followed, she tried to resist.

"Don't be a stubborn ass, that's my job." Reno would keep telling her as he cleaned and rebandaged her arm.

The medical supplies she had scrounged luckily included antibiotics, so he followed the directions for her dosage. And he was glad there was a bathroom in the back of the church, so he just had to carry her to the toilet and leave her there for a few minutes, before taking her back to the makeshift bed. He had put it by the flowers, because Tifa seemed calmer there even though the first day of her fevered delirium she had ranted against Shinra for what they had done to her. Then the second day she went on about how everyone always left her.

"So leave them first and then you're ahead of the game." Reno told her as he changed the cold compresses on her forehead.

On day three the antibiotics started working, and the fever went down enough for Tifa to regain her senses. She was able to start feeding herself, but she was still too weak to stand. She felt a little humiliated needing help to go to the bathroom, but she was stuck for it, so she just relaxed in his arms and let him carry her back and forth.

"How long was I out of it?" Tifa asked him.

"This is day three." Reno told her.

"No one's coming looking for us yet?"

"If they have, they haven't found us yet. Don't worry, you won't have to put up with me for much longer." Reno said.

"Why do you say that?" Tifa asked, confused.

"You hate us, don't you?"

"Shinra, which means the Turks as well."

"Oh. I don't hate you, just what you stand for. I can't hate you, I don't even know you."

"That's comforting." Reno said as he cleaned and rebandaged her arm again.

***

The next day, Tifa was able to walk if Reno supported her. She insisted on leaving the church to see if people had started to return, and if 7th Heaven was still standing. Soon she wore her legs out, so Reno had to carry her again. She directed him to where she thought it would be, as she rested her head against his neck.

She cried out when she saw the 7th Heaven sign lying in a pile of rubble.

"Is that the building?" Reno asked, and much to her relief, Tifa saw that the sign had just been knocked off the building, 7th Heaven was still standing with only some minor damage.

Reno put Tifa down to open the door, then picked her back up to carry her inside. The thought that he was carrying her over the threshold popped into her head to taunt her, and she was glad she could focus on the bar, and the cleanup involved. Reno cleaned off a bar stool and sat her down on it.

"I hope you have good insurance." he said as he looked around.

Tifa couldn't speak, she was overwhelmed by being glad her bar was still standing, but the immense cleanup and building repairs needed to get it running again was painful to witness.

Reno went behind the bar, the sound of crunching glass under his feet. He found a unbroken bottle of gin and two clean glasses, pouring some into each glass. "Here's to finding more untouched alcohol!" Reno lifted his glass and smiled at her.

Tifa smiled back at him and clinked her glass to him, and they both downed their drinks and put the glasses back on the counter. Reno was refilling them when they heard a noise at the entrance, and they turned to see Cloud and Rude standing there.

"About time you showed up!" Reno exclaimed to Rude.

"Are you okay?" Cloud asked Tifa, surprised her see her drinking with the enemy.

"How'd you know where to find me?" Reno asked Rude.

"Where else would you be to celebrate the world not ending but a bar with an attractive woman?" Rude answered.

Reno shrugged and took his glass and headed towards the entrance, handing his glass to Cloud. "Take care of her." he said before looking back once at Tifa and leaving with Rude.

Tifa downed her second glass as she watched the most frustratingly complex man she had ever met walk out the door.


	5. Chapter 5

A week later, as Elena slept next to him, Reno lay there staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep, he had a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and wondered if he was getting bored with Elena.

* * *

Tifa woke up to hearing noises downstairs at the bar. She quietly went to the stairs and went down a couple steps. She was stunned when she saw Reno sweeping up the dust and debris. She wasn't sure how he got inside, then realized of course he would know how to pick the lock on the door. She watched him cleaning up for a few moments, then silently went back to bed, not wanting to embarrass him if he preferred to be an anonymous helper.

* * *

A month later, 7th Heaven celebrated its second Grand Opening. Tifa wearing a new dark blue dress for the occasion, and everyone she knew, friend or in the Turks' case, not exactly a foe anymore, was there. She tried to talk to Reno, but he just gave monosyllabic answers and she gave up. She had caught him cleaning up the bar in the middle of the night three more times, but just went back to bed each time.

Cloud was there as well, and Tifa was trying to get him to be the host to her hostess, but he seemed distracted and was no more talkative than Reno. Suddenly she heard a disturbance, and turned to see Yuffie getting pissed off at some drunk patron, claiming he grabbed her ass while trying to steal her materia. Other people tried to intervene, and that only made it worse. A full-fledged bar fight was soon in progress, with everyone but Reno involved. He just kept sitting at the bar drinking his beer, and when another patron invaded his space, he just whipped out his rod and tased them.

Rude and the former members of AVALANCHE just started throwing the patrons out the door, and soon the bar was quiet again, with only them and the Turks remaining. Tifa looked around her, surveying the damage. The bar now looked not much different than it had after Meteorfall.

"Thank you all for coming. The bar is now closed." Tifa's voice quavered as she fought back tears before turning and running up the stairs to her room.

* * *

In the middle of the night, Tifa woke up and went downstairs, and Reno was there again, cleaning up. This time she decided to not walk away, she went over to him and touched his arm.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked gently.

He was startled to see her suddenly there in her white nightgown. "That was the best bar opening I've ever been to." he said.

"You know your way around bars, don't you?"

"My parents owned one." Reno reluctantly admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Tifa's proximity suddenly was disturbing to him, and he decided to leave.

"Well, thank you." Tifa said, going to give him a quick kiss in gratitude.

But the kiss turned out to be anything but quick. They were both surprised at the reaction their bodies had to that simple kiss, and Reno ended up taking Tifa into his arms and carrying her up the stairs to her bedroom, Tifa still kissing him. Once on her bed, they undressed each other, and Tifa reveled in the sensations her body was experiencing as his hands and lips explored every inch of her body before he entered her.

* * *

"You never had sex before?" Reno asked her when they woke up the next morning.

"Nope." she sleepily replied.

"But Cloud…"

"Might as well be blind." Tifa said. "You want some breakfast?"

"I want something else first." Reno pulled her to him.

That became their routine, when he was available, Tifa would wake up in the middle of night to find him cleaning up in the bar, and he would take her upstairs where they would have incredible sex, and in the morning, she would cook his favorite breakfast and they ate together before he left for work.


End file.
